If a man is lazy, the rafters sag: if his hands are idle, the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for every thing

Ecclesiastes 10-19

PRLog - Nov. 26, 2011 - Think about it/ Bible verse- Ecclesiastes 10-19...WhatablessingMONEY IS THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHINGWith the belief that King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, we need to read what is written with that understanding. Placing the scripture provided together with previous and following scripture may give us a better look at what was being said.

Ecclesiastes 10: 16- 20 follows:

“Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time-- for strength and not for drunkenness. If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.”

First, I believe he is speaking of how the government should be operating. The officials need to be setting the example for the people. He then speaks of being diligent and not idle, and how the results of avoiding hard work are lack of repair (sagging leaking roof). A feast is for fun and wine makes one happy, but someone has to pay for the bread and wine. Hard work is necessary in order to earn the money to pay for the merriment. He ends by saying not to speak ill of the king and those who have earned their money through hard work for it may be heard and be reported.

Overall, I believe, that what is being said is that a hard working government sets the example for the people, allows feasting and merriment and if the people are doing without it is because they are not following the example being set and are being lazy and foolish. If they were to work hard and earn their money they to could join in the feast and enjoy the wine. If they chose instead to complain and not work, they will be found out.

Here are four tips I found most insightful:

1. The only strategy that's guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. You're not judged by your mistakes.Zuckerberg: I don't pretend that I had any idea what I was doing. I always felt like we were so close to dying in the first years, and were afraid that Google was about to build our product and we were going to be screwed, and look how long it took for them to build our product. You are going to make a ton of mistakes, you don't get judged by that.The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

2. Don't start a company just to start a company. Do what you you're passionate about, what you think is awesome.Zuckerberg: There's this culture in [Silicon Valley] of starting a company before they know what they want to do. You decided you want to start a company, but you don't know what you are passionate about yet ... you need to do stuff you're passionate about. The companies that work are the ones that people really care about and have a vision for the world so do something you like.

I was in denial that we were going to make a company early on. When I was in college, I had a lot of conversations with my friends about the direction the world was going to go to and we cared more about seeing this happen. We built it and we didn't expect it to be a company, we were just building this because we thought it was awesome.

3. Don't sell out for the money. If you want to follow your vision, don't sell the company; things will change.Zuckerberg: The only reason why it's this big story that everyone knows about us turning down a lot of money is because I messed up the process. It's one of the biggest management mistakes I made through Facebook's whole history. I learned a lot about the team at that time, and ended turning over a lot of that same team. I wasn't in it for the acquisitions, and I wanted people around me who were in it for the long-term, he said.

It's not clear that you should turn down offers, but you should take it if it means the company can go in the direction you want it to go on. If you go through some big corporate change, it's just not going to be the same. If we sold to Yahoo, they would have done something different. If you want to continue your vision of the company, then don't sell because there's inevitably going to be some change.

4. Silicon Valley is too short term focused.Zuckerberg: If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn't know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it's not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me. There's a culture out here where people don't commit to doing things. I feel like a lot of companies built outside of Silicon Valley seem to be focused on the longer-term.